When I was at the museum, we covered the tables. When I started they
covered them with fadeless paper, then clear plastic it took ½ an hour
to cover 1 table. I switched to plastic table cloths purchased on a roll
and attached them with Velcro tape. The rolls were enough to cover the
art studio at least twice and we had 8 tables 3’X6’. We got them from a
local company called Mayfield Paper Company that had a party supply
store on the same site. If you’re in West Texas or the Hill Country
their URL is http://www.mayfieldusa.com/ . I would suggest trying to
find a similar business in your area that wholesales paper etc but has a
small retail shop. Their price was about ½ of the local party stores,
and when they heard it was for THE KIDS they gave me another 10% off.

<snip>. If you have slate tables, I also recommend covering them with
some colorful tablecloths and tape the the coverings down so cleanup
also is only on the cloth and not the slate. Colored cloths also help in
organizing.i.e.. red table ,today will be working on carving linoleum
blocks, green table is just for printing. Yellow table is for drawing if
your project is completed...etc.Color also transforms the science lab
easily into an art room. <snip>